Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
The legal headaches continue for UBS. A former employee whom the bank had deemed responsible for the Libor scandal is now claiming $400 million in damages and interest.
Also on Wednesday: the Swiss government has proposed new rules for Big Tech firms. And at the end of today’s briefing, we’ll look at the dramatic consequences of a poorly stored fondue stove.
The Swiss government wants more transparency from big digital platforms like Google, Meta, X and TikTok. Today it launched a consultation process on a draft bill to strengthen regulation of the tech giants.
The draft bill aims to boost the rights of users of the platforms, in particular by forcing firms to inform those affected when they remove or block content and to justify their decisions. Ultimately, the government wants to combat the spread of slander, insults, discrimination and incitement to hatred.
Processes to make it easier to report suspected illegal content should also be put in place, and when a platform’s HQ is located abroad, it will have to appoint a legal representative in Switzerland.
The bill was eagerly awaited in Bern, after the government had postponed a decision on the matter several times. Ongoing discussions with the US on customs tariffs were then cited as the reason for a further postponement, a delay that irritated many in the Swiss parliament.
UBS is back in the news today. The Swiss banking giant will appeal a recent decision by the Federal Administrative Court on AT1 bonds; it also presented its quarterly results.
In June 2023, when Credit Suisse was sold to UBS in a last-ditch rescue deal, bonds worth CHF16 billion ($20.1 billion) were written off. In mid-October, the Administrative Court overturned this decision, ruling that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) had no legal basis for having done so. Today, UBS announced that it is appealing this decision, joining forces with FINMA to defend the Credit Suisse rescue plan.
UBS has also been caught up again in an old scandal around the manipulation of the Libor interest rate, used for interbank loans. The bank is being sued by one of its former traders, whom UBS had portrayed as the “malicious mastermind” behind the affair in order to protect itself. He is now claiming $400 million (CHF319 million) in damages from his former employer.
At the same time, the country’s leading bank posted a sharp rise in third-quarter results. It reported a net profit of $2.5 billion (CHF2 billion) at the end of September, up 74% year-on-year. UBS also said it had made progress in integrating Credit Suisse.
After the Radical-Liberal Party and the Swiss People’s Party, it’s now the turn of the Centre Party to clarify its position on the new agreements between Switzerland and the European Union. For party president Philippe Matthias Bregy, they are “acceptable”.
“We are not crazy about this agreement, but it is essential to maintain relations with the EU based on clear rules,” Bregy said in an interview with Tamedia newspapers today. However, he believes improvements are needed at the national level, particularly in terms of immigration management and the automatic takeover of European legislation.
Bregy also called for “systematic exploitation” of any room for manoeuvre when it comes to the implementation of European rules. “Switzerland is too often the model pupil of European law. We expect more creativity and flexibility to make the most of the situation,” he said.
The new agreements negotiated with the EU have been generally well received by parties, associations and organisations, with the exception of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party. The consultation process will end on October 31.
The cause of a fire which ravaged the restaurant at Glacier 3000 at the Les Diablerets ski resort has been determined. The culprit was very Swiss: a fondue cooker.
During the night of September 18-19, 2022, the upper part of the Glacier 3000 cable car station went up in smoke. In the midst of the darkness, the burning building at the top of the mountain took the shape of a giant fondue pot. No one was injured in the tragedy, but it took firefighters 23 hours to bring the flames under control in difficult conditions.
Ironically, the criminal investigation has since revealed that the fire spread because of burning alcohol in a fondue cooker that was still lit and had been stacked on top of other appliances, as revealed yesterday by 24 heures and Le Temps. However, the user manual included an illustrated warning not to stack objects.
The restaurant director at the time had to face charges of negligent arson. The public prosecutor accused her of not having “taken care of the new appliances” which had been delivered a few weeks earlier. The woman allegedly “disregarded her duties of care in terms of supervision, training and delegation of tasks”.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
